Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 21.djvu/221

Rh S A I S A I 201 about 1200 Angolares, descendants of a shipload of Angola slaves wrecked at Sete Pedras in 1544, who still retain their Btinda speech and peculiar customs. St Thomas was discovered about the close of 1470 by the Portu- guese navigators Joao de Sautarem and Pero de Escobar, who in the beginning of the following year discovered Amiobom ("Good Year "). They found St Thomas uninhabited. The first attempts at colonization were Joao de Paiva's in 1485 ; but nothing perma- nent was accomplished till 1493, when a body of criminals and of young Jews torn from their parents to be baptized were sent to the island, and the present capital was founded by Alvaro de Carminha. Considerable progress had been made by the 16th century ; but in 1567 the settlement was attacked by the French, and in 1574 the Angolares began those raids which only ended with their subjuga- tion in 1693. In 1595 there was a slave revolt ; and from 1641 to 1844 the Dutch, who had plundered the capital in 1600, held pos- session of the island. The French did great damage in 1709 ; and in the course of the century internal anarchy reduced St Thomas to a deplorable state. See Dr Greeff's papers in Petennann's Mlttellungen, 1884, and Globus, 1SS2, vol. xlii. SAINT-VICTOR, PAUL DE (1827-1883), one of the chief masters of a very ornate style in recent French litera- ture, was born at Paris in 1827 and died there in 1883. He was of noble birth and inherited the title of count, but rarely used it, his political principles being democratic. Saint- Victor began as a dramatic critic on the Pays in 1851 and subsequently wrote in many journals. In 1870, during the last days of the second empire, he was made inspector -general of fine arts. Almost all Saint -Victor's work consists of reprinted articles, the best known, and on the whole the best, being the collection entitled Hommes et Dieux (1867). His death interrupted the publication of an elaborate work, partly reprinted, partly developed from formerly printed papers, entitled Les Deux Masques, in which the author intended to survey the whole dramatic literature of ancient and modern times. Saint-Victor's actual critical faculty was considerable, though rather one- sided but his position in French literature is likely to be, in an inferior degree, something like that of Mr Ruskin in English. He owed a good deal to Theophile Gautier, but he carried ornateness to a pitch far beyond Gautier's, a pitch which may sometimes deserve the epithet " barbaric." ST VINCENT, an island in the West Indies, discovered by Columbus in 1498, is situated in 13 10' N. lat. and 60 57' W. long., 100 miles to the west of Barbados; it is 18 miles in length, 11 in breadth, and has an area of 132 square miles. Volcanic hills cross the island from north to south, intersected by beautiful and fertile valleys. In the north-west is the Souffriere, a volcanic mountain (3000 feet), of which the last violent eruption was in 1812 ; the crater is 3 miles in circumference and 500 feet in depth. The climate is humid and tolerably healthy (average rainfall nearly 80 inches). In 1627, when Charles I. granted St Vincent to the earl of Carlisle, it was peopled by Caribs ; in 1672 it was given to Lord Willoughby, and in 1722 was granted, along with other islands, to the duke of Montagu by George I. After hostilities with the French and Caribs, it passed definitively to Great Britain in 1783. Immigrants were afterwards introduced and plantations cultivated ; the chief products are sugar, rum, molasses, and arrowroot. The capital is Kingstown (popu- lation, 5593), the total population of the island being 42,200, including 2700 Europeans and 30,000 Africans. The island was formerly under the general government of the Windward Islands, Barbados being headquarters ; but in 1885 Barbados was made a separate government, and Grenada, St Vincent, Tobago, and St Lucia were placed under a governor. The legislative council of St Vincent is composed of official members and others nominated by the crown. In 1883 the revenue and expenditure were respectively 34,509 and 32,962, the debt being 2840. The tonnage entered and cleared was 172,989, the imports and exports being valued at 148,286 and 166,752 re- spectively (sugar exports, 9250 tons). ST VINCENT, SIR JOHN JERVIS, EARL (1734-1823), a distinguished naval officer, was born at Meaford, Stafford- shire, on 9th January 1734. His father was counsel and solicitor to the admiralty and treasurer of Greenwich hos- pital. Young Jervis was destined for the law, but early showed such a strong predilection for the sea that he ran away from school in order to become a sailor. Accordingly in 1748 he was placed on board the "Gloucester" under Commodore Townsend. Six years later he rose to be lieu- tenant, and in 1759 he distinguished himself so much at the siege and capture of Quebec that he was promoted to the rank of commander. In the following year he was made a post-captain. He commanded the " Foudroyant " in July 1778, when the memorable rencontre took place be- tween Admiral Keppel and Count d'Orvilliers, and bore a very distinguished part in that action. In 1782, while in command of the same vessel, he captured the French ship " Pegase," of 74 guns and 700 men, off Brest Harbour, and was rewarded for his exploit by being made Knight Com- panion of the Bath. In 1784 he entered parliament as member for Launceston, and he afterwards sat for Yar- mouth. Conjointly with Sir Charles Grey, Jervis was appointed to command an expedition sent out in 1793 against the French Caribbee islands, and, though the rainy season and the yellow fever prevented the full success of the British, they were able to obtain possession of Mar- tinique and St Lucia, and to hold Guadaloupe for a short time. In 1795 Jervis became full admiral and succeeded Lord Wood in command of the British fleet in the Medi- terranean, where he rendered important service in blockad- ing the French fleet in Toulon, and protecting English trade in the Levant. On 14th February 1797 he won his most celebrated victory. With only fifteen ships of the line, seven frigates, and two sloops he encountered off Cape St Vincent a Spanish fleet of twenty-six sail of the line, twelve frigates, and a brig, and completely defeated it, capturing four of the enemy's largest ships. For this great triumph, which had a most important effect on the prosecution of the war, Jervis was created a peer by the title of Earl St Vincent. He still further distinguished himself some months later by his resolute and sagacious conduct in re- pressing a mutiny in his fleet when off Cadiz. In June 1799 he resigned his command in consequence of ill-health, but was shortly afterwards placed at the head of the Channel fleet. On the formation of the Addington ministry in 1801 he was made first lord of the admiralty, and in that important office, which he held for three years, the great capacity for business with which he was endowed by nature shone forth in all its lustre. By means of the cele- brated commission of naval inquiry he was enabled to ex- pose a vast extent of corruption in the public service and to lay the foundation of a system of economical administration. He grappled boldly with the monstrous and deep-rooted abuses brought to light, and by his vigour, honesty, and energy succeeded in rectifying them. In 1806, at the age of seventy-two, Lord St Vincent was again called upon to take the command of the Channel fleet and to head an expedition to the court of Portugal, in which he displayed great talents and address. Advanced age and impaired health led to his final retirement from public life in 1807, but he survived till 13th March 1823, when he died in his ninetieth year. See Brenton, Life of Earl St Vincent ; Lord Brougham, States- men of the Times of George III. St VITUS'S DANCE, 1 or CHOREA, a disorder of the This name was originally employed in connexion with those remarkable epidemic outbursts of combined mental and physical ex- citement which for a time prevailed among the inhabitants of some parts of Germany in the Middle Ages. It is stated that sufferers from XXI. 26